Apple's Update Mistake -- Hundreds Of Millions Of iPhones Affected

Apple doesn't often make security or privacy mistakes -- but this is one of them. I have warned about this before, but it hasn't been fixed. Despite multiple iOS updates in recent weeks, this remains a serious issue. That means you must change your iPhone settings now, as users are putting their iPhones at risk. Dangerous USB access to smartphones has been highlighted by several recent spyware alerts that exploit physical, cabled access to devices. Apple protects against this with USB restriction options. These were limited or background settings until iOS 26, which added updated Wired Accessories settings when it was released. But as one Reddit forum is now warning, the defaults for this new setting are unsafe. "At a moment of weakness, I plugged my iPhone into hotel's usb charging port overnight," one Redditor posted. "The next day, I was super paranoid and decided to check my security settings. Turn out I had the default setting, which allows usb accessory connection when phone is unlocked." That's far from ideal. Apple offers USB-C equipped iPhones the following USB connection options: Always Ask, Ask for New Accessories, Automatically Allow When Unlocked and Always Allow. Charging always works, this is about enabling a data connection as well. The default should be Ask for New Accessories, but it isn't. The default is Automatically Allow When Unlocked. And that's an issue. "When I changed it to 'always ask' and plugged the phone back for a test," the Redditor explains, "I got a message asking me if I want to connect to this usb accessory. So, basically I unknowingly allowed my phone to connect to this device overnight the day before." There have now been multiple reports warning users to change this setting (1,2,3). Apple should change the default to make this security more Apple-like out-of-the-box. Leaving this as it is now is a mistake, given the current threat landscape. Had the default been Ask for New Accessories, the iPhone would trigger a one-time prompt before enabling that USB connection automatically in the future. Hardly an inconvenience and materially safer. Seeing the prompt doesn't mean a USB connection is dangerous, it can sometimes show with chargers, but it's a fail safe. You will receive additional prompts if a computer is fully connecting to your phone. But you should check and change your iPhone settings now, if you're one of the hundreds of millions of users with an iPhone 17, 16 or 15 with a USB-C port. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Wired Accessories, and then select either "Always Ask" to be rock solid or "Ask for New Accessories," which strikes the right balance. Apple has just changed Stolen Device Protection, enabling this by default because that's a safer option for users and has limited downsides. It should now do the same with the Wired Accessories default in one of its forthcoming updates.